Quests of Valdez: The School of Magic
by TeamLeonidas
Summary: Leo goes to Athens, Greece without the burden of a prophecy to get his mind away from his loneliness and to make peace with the trauma from the last war. Along the way, a series of events and a fascination with dragons lead him to an unexpected discovery: a place that feels like home where he fights monsters, saves dragons, and encounters a certain trio and a pair of twins.
1. Leo Goes on Vacation

**REMINDER  
With languages, if the POV-person understands it, we use "[ ]" for the translation. If the POV-person doesn't, "« »" will be used.**

* * *

"Oh gods," Leo mutters to himself when he finally sees another monster, which Festus had detected, surfacing from the North Atlantic Ocean below them.

After the son of fire returned to Camp Half-Blood with the former immortal, Calypso, on the back of the ever familiar bronze dragon a week after his supposed death, things had gone pretty smoothly for him for a while.

His six friends were there to greet (kill) him. The other demigods cheered (hit) him when they saw him and his cabin-mates greeted him with open arms (punches). He'd never felt more loved and accepted (bruised) than he did before that day—surrounded by his very own family.

Yet, despite his return, despite his sacrifice—his _death_ , he still found himself tinkering alone in Bunker Nine.

It had been a lonely three months, but it was a feeling which he had sadly grown used to. His friends had moved on with their lives while he was stuck in his past, wondering what to do with his own.

It was a bitter pill to swallow. It wasn't that he was all alone—though that was a part of it. It was that his friends all knew what they wanted to do.

 _Mist Master_ Hazel Levesque and _Legion Praetor_ Frank Zhang are busy with the Twelfth Legion at Camp Jupiter. _Charmspeak Master_ Piper McLean and _Pontifex Maximus_ Jason Grace both went with Piper's dad, the famous Tristan McLean, to spend their school year in Los Angeles; while _Greek Leader_ Percy Jackson and _Olympus Architect_ Annabeth Chase continued theirs in New York.

Well, he wasn't eager to be with the last two couples since school destroys his patience and will to live, but they were still _with_ someone… and very much _happy_ …

Even Calypso had actual plans for _her_ life. After Leo freed her from Ogygia, she had decided to go to school with the Oracle of Delphi, Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

It made sense for her to leave the camp since she needed time to adjust to the modern world, but if it was up to him, he wouldn't step a foot in another school again, hence why he declined their offer for him to join them.

Calypso was reluctant to leave him alone but he was also reluctant to make her stay with him—no matter how badly he needed the company. Calypso left the camp with Rachel and her dad after he assured her that he will be fine on his own.

That lie was what led him to his current predicament outside of Long Island, New York.

Not being able to withstand the loneliness and continuous pain of the previous war, as well as his accursed Fatal Flaw, he immediately went forth with his first ever rule when he finds himself in times of extreme devastation:

Run.

Although this time, it isn't permanent— _he hopes_. No, he's _only_ taking a break from the depressing walls of Bunker Nine, the lack of companionship, and the silence from the other six demigods he considered his family. Not permanent. No.

It was supposed to be a peaceful break from it all but since he is _Leo Valdez_ and everyone just loves making his life _miserable_ , he ends up in the middle of the ocean fighting another monster that just— _wouldn't_ — _stay—DEAD_.

"Why don't you just stay in Tartarus, _Shrimpzilla_!" Leo exclaims, remembering Percy's nickname for the beast, as he takes jars of Greek fire from his tool belt.

Quickly pulling Festus' reins to dodge another attack, he circles around the sea serpent cautiously, waiting for his _golden_ opportunity. As it opened its mouth for another attack, he hurriedly throws the Greek fire down its throat.

Learning his lesson from his time in the Argo II, Leo pulls Festus' reins, hysterically yelling at him to fly away _IMMEDIATELY_ just as the sea serpent bellows an almighty cry. A flash of green light erupts inside the beast and _finally_ disintegrates it into golden ashes.

"And another one bites the dust," Leo cracks, chuckling to himself as he watches the ocean swallow the glittering remains of his _beautiful_ sea combatant.

His throat closes up at the sudden awareness that he and Festus are alone, and nobody's there to laugh or roll their eyes at his jokes. He sighs in desolation and pats the dragon's coarse hide, smiling encouragingly—for whom, he doesn't know.

"How about that, Festus? We make a good team if I may say so myself."

As the fire-wielding duo turn to the horizon, Leo shields his face against the sunlight and wonders whether the sun and prophecy god, Apollo, is giving him a glimpse of the future: light and beautiful. He doubts it but he isn't going to let _that_ ruin his mood.

Loudly, he declares, "Well, no one's gonna sing about my woes and feelings anyway. Onward and upward, my mighty steed! TO GREECE WE GO!"

Festus lets out a ferocious roar, making Leo grin wider than he ever had in weeks, before finally surging forward.

The other demigods he informed thought he was both crazy and an idiot for even thinking of going back to the exact place where Gaea had awaken three months ago on the first of August.

Dirt-Face may had gone back to sleep but she never left him.

As a demigod, Leo thought he'd be used to having frequent nightmares. Even before he went to Camp Half-Blood, he'd been having these _weird_ dreams while he was running from another foster system… but his dreams are far worse now.

Instead of witnessing the present, a nearing future, or a new opponent talking about their plans to rise again, Leo had been dreaming of the past. He can't help but go back to that exact moment when he felt a momentary amount of pain followed by the feeling of complete nothingness.

It was scary to know the feeling of death.

It was blissful. It was _nothing_. There was no pain, no sadness, and no happiness. There was only peace. How many times had his dreams taunted him to want to go back to that exact moment? To hear his friends tell him how much he is not wanted over and over and over again? To hear his mother's cries of anguish while being engulfed in flames?

No, he needed some closure.

Going back to the place where all things were lost—to the place where his death was definitely the plan he must ensue, maybe—just maybe—he could get that peace he'd been wanting without the need for a second death.

He comes back from his musings at the whirring sound he can hear inside Festus before the said dragon clicks to communicate with his rider, albeit wearily.

—•• | • | —• | — | • | —••

"Dented? What's dented?"

—• | • | —•—• | —•—

"Oh, _Styx_ ," Leo mutters under his breath upon hearing that Festus' neck is dented—and, judging from the sound of it, is bad but, at least, not _too_ bad.

The mechanisms that help Festus spew fire are located in the area where any dragon stores their volatile high-energy fuel—its throat. If the fuel inside Festus leaks and comes into contact with its working (heating) engines, Leo would be dying in the exact same manner as he did three months ago.

To his surprisingly rare good luck, Leo realizes that, distracted from his own self-reflection, he had not realised that there is already land below him instead of the North Atlantic Ocean. Green trees adorn the mountains of the area with further mountains being covered with snow.

"Yeah, I guess we've gone pretty far," Leo mutters, scratching his head. "This is our first pit-stop. Guess it's rest and feeding time."

With that statement, Festus flies down, and—with a light thud—lands amongst the trees beside a giant mansion that kinda looks like a castle (which Leo thought, he could grab supplies from). [1]

 _A chateau_ , his inner-Annabeth tells him. Ahhh, he remembers the old days when he and Annabeth were talking about architecture and the specifics to be made for the Argo II.

Annabeth was the one he talked to the most for the whole six months he spent building the Argo II—and it's mostly just Annabeth telling him to stop slacking off and work _work WORK_.

He nearly killed himself making one of his best creations [2] but he understands that Annabeth was going through a tough time—her boyfriend missing and all… It's not like he's someone to be worried about. He's always just alone.

He curses his ADHD for making his mind go everywhere.

Leo slides off Festus to inspect the dent. Thankfully, it wasn't bad enough to risk either of them blowing up this whole side of whatever country this is, but it is bad enough to have probably rendered some of the engines malfunctioning.

Still, it wasn't something that will make things harder for one Leo Valdez.

A quarter of an hour later, just as he was about to replace the interlocking bronze plates that covers Festus' torso, he hears voices. Leo immediately looks around to scan for monsters before noticing a glint in the corner of his eyes.

"¡Están dragones en el torneo!" a nearing voice says.  
[There are dragons in the tournament!]

Festus, quiet as always, manages to hide deeper in the forest, leaving Leo behind to hide behind the nearest tree.

"¡Ni hablar!" another voice asks in amazement.  
[No way!]

"¡Es verdad! ¡Lo juro!" the other defends himself.  
[It's true! I swear!]

 _Am I in Spain?_ Leo thinks upon realizing that he can understand what they are saying, and it definitely doesn't sound English nor Ancient Greek.

"¿Pero _dragones_? ¿En la _escuela_? ¡¿Son el _tontos_?!"  
[But _dragons_? In the _school_? Are they _morons_?!]

 _Are they demigods?_ Leo asks in his brain.

He berates himself. _Of course,_ they are. Who in the Pit of Tartarus would actually believe in dragons—much less _in a school_ —except fellow demigods?

"Hey!" he greets, walking out from behind the tree.

In an instant, he is facing two sticks pointing right at him—one at his forehead and one at his heart.

"Whoa, whoa, chill!" Leo says in surprise.

The two boys are wearing grey and pale blue suits underneath robes that make them look like Jedis—if a Jedi wears pale blue robes rather than dark brown ones.

"Qui es-tu?!" the taller boy with a scar on his eyebrow—the one pointing the piece of stick between his eyes—practically yells at him. " _Parler!_ "  
«Who are you?!» « _Speak!_ »

Leo's brows furrow at the boy's words. That did _not_ sound Spanish at all.

If Piper was there, she would have easily told him that the boy was asking who he was and had yelled at him to speak. Unfortunately for Leo, he's all alone. Even Festus isn't with him at the moment—hiding amongst the trees.

"Bro, I don't know what you just said," Leo admits, raising his hands up in surrender. "I'm not going to hurt you or whatever…"

"El es americano," the smaller boy who has a few freckles—the one pointing a stick on his chest—whispers to the boy behind him.  
[He's American.]

"¡No soy idiota!" _Scar-Man_ murmurs exasperatedly through gritted teeth—making _Freckle-Boy_ roll his eyes for the nth time that day.  
[I'm not an idiot!]

"¡Sí, sí! ¡Soy americano! Soy mexicano americano… y tejano… de los Estados Unidos… Well, I'm actually living in New York now but I don't think you care much about—er—lo siento; ADHD…"  
[Yes, yes! I'm American! I'm Mexican American… and Texan… from the United States…] [Sorry; ADHD]

"¿Cómo te llama?" Scar-Man asks firmly, digging the branch on his forehead just as Freckle-Boy's branch touches his chest.  
[What's your name?]

Leo knows better than anyone that he shouldn't underestimate whatever it is being used as a weapon—especially seemingly harmless-looking ones… and these sticks are definitely weapons in the eyes of these two blue-clad boys.

"Leo…" he responds, nearly introducing himself as the Super-Sized McShizzle but the two both look like they'd kill him on the spot if he dared to crack a joke.

"What do you want?" Scar-Man growls, digging the stick deeper, making Leo flinch at the contact despite it not looking threatening. Scar-Man's murderous glare definitely makes up for that.

"¡Nada! ¡Nada! I swear! I'm just passing by! I'm a traveller!" Leo says, unconsciously returning to his accent which he hadn't used since he was little.  
[Nothing! Nothing!]

Scar-Man turns to Freckle-Boy. " _Peut-être_ qu'il est un Moldu."  
« _Maybe_ he's a Muggle.»

"¿Qué estás haciendo?" Freckle-Boy asks in confusion. "¿Por qué hablar en francés?"  
[What are you doing? Why speak in French?]

 _Oh, so it was French. If only Piper was_ —he stops his thought process before he falls down _that_ rabbit hole again.

"Porque," Leo interrupts, "no entiendo francés."  
[Because I don't understand French.]

They glare at him.

"¿Eres los dos _fresas_?" he asks jokingly before he could stop himself.  
[Are you two _rich-kids_?]

Leo watches as the two boys scrunch their brows in confusion.

"¿Solo dijo _fresas_?" Freckle-Boy asks Scar-Man.  
[Did he just say _strawberries_?]

"Yeah, you know… rich-kids?" Leo says awkwardly.

"Fresas mean strawberries," Freckle-Boy says before his eyes widen in realization. "Oh mes dieux! You are Mexican! Not Spanish!"  
«Oh my gods!»

"Ahhh, yes, soy latino," Leo says. "English, then? Before I call you strawberries again?… and can you stop pointing whatever-that-is at me?"

"Not until we find out who you are," Scar-Man hisses.

Leo feels he should not call Scar-Man and Freckle-Boy as is unless he wants to waste his new life by dying in their hands.

"What about you? I didn't get _your_ names." The two glance at each other. "I'm not gonna do anything! Just common courtesy, you know? I mean, I _did_ just tell you _my_ name. You don't want to be rude and all, right?"

A pause. "I'm Enrique," Scar-Man finally replies, lowering the stick but still gripping it by his side. "This is my brother, Pablo," he adds, gesturing to Freckle-Boy who also lowers his branch after a few beats. [3]

"Right…" Leo says. "Can I ask… where I am?"

"You don't know?" Scar-M— _Enrique_ asks in confusion.

"Well, I'm either in Spain or France, that's for sure… I think? Maybe? Am I?"

"How can you not know that—?"

"I _told_ you. I'm a traveller. I'm just resting right now… I never really intended to land here, you know," Leo informs them.

"Estás en Francia," Pablo tells Leo, turning he addresses his older brother once more. "Comment savons-nous qu'il est un Moldu?"  
[You're in France.] «How do we know he's a Muggle?»

Leo bites his tongue before commenting on how rude it is to speak another language in front of him.

Deciding that he's spent too much time here already, he decides to ask, "Look, I just want to ask about the dragons. You were talking about dragons in a school?"

"Why?" Pablo asks.

"What…?" Leo stops.

 _Styx, what if they aren't demigods? Then again, they did just threaten me with a stick… like it's their sword or whatever. I mean, Percy's sword is a pen, and Jason's is a freaking coin. Mortals wouldn't threaten me with sticks, would they?_

"Are you… half-bloods?" he asks instead because it won't be _that_ suspicious to mortals, albeit a bit weird question.

With that question, he sees the two look at each other once more and grip their hold on those branches once more.

"Yes, we are," Enrique says. "Why? Do you have a problem with half-bloods?"

"What?! No! I'm a half-blood, too!" Leo says, relaxing a bit. "I didn't know there are people like us in Europe!" As an afterthought, he murmurs, "Then again, we didn't know Camp Jupiter existed before either. Wait, hold on, one of my half-brothers started the Great Fire of London… Great fire and destruction…" [4] Shaking his head to clear it, he asks, "So who's your parent?"

Enrique looks at Leo oddly before saying, "Our mother is a pureblood. Our father is a Muggle."

"What's a Muggle?" Leo asks in confusion. " _Oh_ , is that how you call _mortals_?"

"…yes…?" Pablo turns to Enrique. "Tous les Américains ont-ils des préjugés?"  
«Are all Americans prejudiced?»

"Je sais pas," Enrique answers, shrugging.  
«I dunno.»

"Look, you two gotta stop talking in French in front of me. It's kinda rude, you know?" Leo says with a sigh. "I just want to know where the dragons are."

"Are you a dragonologist?" Pablo asks.

Thinking about Festus, Leo decides to answer, "Er… yes?"

"Then why aren't you at Romania?" Enrique inquires suspiciously.

One thing Leo Valdez had always been good at: lying. He isn't proud of it but one does all he can to survive the streets. He would have died a million times already from the amount of interactions he had with gangs if he wasn't… charming enough for them to keep. One more perk of being the jokester.

"Oh, er, I'm one of the travelling ones… I told you," he replies.

"And you're old enough to work there?" Enrique asks skeptically.

The fact that he was questioned for his age… "I'm the youngest recruit," he lies smoothly. "I'm kind of natural with dragons. I never get burned."

None were lies. Hazel was born in the 1940's so he's, by year, the youngest of the Seven Demigods; he was natural with Festus; and he is fire-proof.

"So, why are you wearing…" he starts to ask, gesturing at their clothing.

"This is our uniform," Pablo replies.

"Your school teaches you the Force, then?" he jokes but neither of them seem to make the Star Wars reference so he clears his throat awkwardly.

"No, our school teaches magic," Pablo says, looking at Leo as if he's an idiot.

"Hecate made a school for magic?" Leo asks them. "Dude, that is _so_ cool!"

"Hecate? Who's Hec—Look, we don't know about the school's origin but it's been here since around the 1290's," Enrique replies. [1]

Leo whistles. "There must have been thousands of students learning magic."

"Why does this surprise you? Aren't you a wizard, too?" Enrique asks.

Leo notices that the two boys seem to grip their sticks tighter and both have the stance a fighter has before attacking. He has to tread lightly.

 _Wizards? Not knowing who Hecate, the goddess of freaking MAGIC, is? Weirded out by the word mortals?! Oh Styx, they're not demigods, are they?_ _The sticks… Magic… Robes… Holy Hephaestus… Wizards… are real?  
Wait, who am I to judge? I'm a freaking demigod who has fire powers. They're probably descendants of Hecate or something…_

"I am… " Leo lies calmly. "Look."

He opens up his hand, letting a small flame come out of his palm—like a small heartbeat, and making it dance across his palm. He smiles at the sight. To think that he now has full control of his powers, it's pretty amazing, really, how far he'd come.

"You can do _wandless magic_?!" the two both cry out in amazement.

Judging from the amazed tone, Leo could manage to keep his lie from before. "Er, yeah—I told you: I'm one of the advanced students… Got a job early and I'm _really_ good with fire… Hence, the dragon… thing…"

He puts the fire on his palm out and relaxes when the two finally loosen their grip on their branche— _wands_.

"Does Ilvermorny teach all students wandless magic?" Pablo asks.

"Ilver—what?" Leo asks.

"Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Enrique replies tensely. "Isn't that where you Americans go to school?"

"Oh yeah, right, sorry, didn't hear you…" he replies. "So… as a… representative of the Romanian Dragonologist thing—"

"Aren't you called the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary?" Enrique asks.

"Look, man, I'm new to the job, and though I love dragons, I'm not really all-knowing about all this stuff," he lies fluidly, acting nonchalant.

Rule One To Lying: Bad liars are always nervous when they don't have an answer to a question. Act stupid. You get to be more believable.

"So they _do_ teach you wandless magic at Ilvermorny?" Enrique asks.

He manages not to look as panicked as he feels since he has no idea what he's even doing anymore but he can put pieces together.

 _Okay, what do I know? Wizards are real… I got to ask Annabeth and Chiron about this but that might take a while since—wait, off topic.  
_ _(1) Okay, wizards are real… but probably descendants of Hecate.  
_ _(2) They have schools all over the world to teach magic.  
_ _(3) There's a magic school in America called Ilvermorny which I gotta check out one day with Hazel and the others… but they don't seem to know much about the school so I can just use Camp Half-Blood as basis.  
_ _(4) They use actual magic wands.  
_ _(5) Not using wands are cool and rare… which means, I can still use my powers but I will hog the spotlight if I do.  
_ _(6) They actually WEAR robes… like legitimate robes. Boy, do I want some robes, too. It looks so awesome!  
_ _(7) I don't think they believe in Ancient Greek "myths" as much as we do but they are aware of it. Burnt-out belief to them, I'm guessing.  
_ _(8) They have a sanctuary for dragons in Romania… which is sooo cool and I have to go there IMMEDIATELY. Screw Greece.  
_ _(9) How do I keep the lie?_

With a sigh, he tells them. "No, I'm a special case," he replies. "First one who can actually use fire without—er—help." He scratches the back of his head as he thinks more. "I have siblings and friends still in Cam—er—school but I was allowed to leave to have fun with dragons in Europe."

Technically, again, they aren't lies. He _is_ a special case; he _is_ the first one after _centuries_ to use fire without using rocks or lighters or whatever; he _does_ have siblings; his friends _are_ in school; and he _was_ allowed to leave and have fun with Festus, a _dragon_ , in Europe.

It's scary how good he is at lying but he _has_ been doing it all his life.

"Anyway, I got lost while travelling so you told me about dragons in a school?"

"Yeah, at Hogwarts—the school up in Britain, but they're only bringing four of them there for the Tournament," Pablo replies in excitement.

"What Tournament?"

"The Triwizard Tournament?" Leo can practically hear the _duh, don't be stupid, you idiot_ , after Enrique's words.

"We don't have those in America… I don't think," Leo replies. Not a lie. They have Chariot Races, Demigod Trials, and other weird dangerous things but he definitely hasn't heard of a Triwizard Tournament.

"Right…" Enrique says, believing him. "Yes, some of the students are actually going there tonight… but we're not old enough for the Tournament."

"Wait, what school are you in again? I don't really know European Wizard Schools," Leo asks for more information, keeping an easy smile on his face.

"Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons," Enrique replies. "Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in English." [1]

"I heard there are hundreds of dragons kept in Romania, is that true?" Pablo interrupts them and Leo blinks for a few moments before replying.

"I haven't really counted them but there are definitely more than you can count," he replies.

He is both impressed and ashamed of how good he is at lying. Then again, he needs information and he doesn't want to be blasted off with a magic wand although that would probably be the coolest thing ever.

"Speaking of Romania," Leo starts, "I better go… Get trained at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary… and—er—don't want to miss the Tournament." _Whatever a Tournament is, anyway._

"How are you—" they ask before Leo walks over to them and snaps his fingers in front of them.

"You are not going to follow me."

When the two boys blink, they only see a bronze glint in the sky, unknowing that there is a demigod out there, heading towards Romania.

* * *

 **FOOTNOTES  
**

* * *

The Spanish and French in this chapter is how the author, CA Hawkins, speaks with her sister and other family members. RA Hanozaki reluctantly trusts her with it lol

[1] Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons or Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (where students from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Netherlands, and Spain go to school), built in the 1290's, is located in the Pyreness Mountains in France, which is near the South border of France, nearing Spain, and just beside the North Atlantic Ocean.

[2] This is canon and it is written in The Mark of Athena. Leo legitimately said that he nearly died in exhaustion, not to mention that fiasco with Buford the table seen in the Demigod Diaries, "Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford."

[3] Enrique means "ruler of the home" or "head of the house" in Spanish. Pablo means "small" in Spanish.

[4] Before Leo, the last person given the gift of Pyrokinesis (gift of Fire) was Thomas Faynor, who caused the Great Fire of London in 1666.


	2. Romania Sends Leo Elsewhere

**Reminder:  
With languages, if the POV-person understands it, we use "[ ]" for the translation. If the POV-person doesn't, "« »" will be used.**

* * *

It was busy. No, scratch that, it was _hectic_.

That was the first thought that popped into his head.

Everywhere you look you could see people running to and from places holding the same sticks—sorry, _wands_ —that the two blue-clad boys from that French school-with-a-complicated-name had.

Standing at the edge of the reserve and watching the restless sanctuary, Leo couldn't help but compare it to their journey to Romania.

It was surprisingly easy, he found, since he was somehow able to sense where the dragons were—the same way one can sense a monster except the feeling isn't as sinister in sensation. As they got closer to their destination, to Romania, the connection—whatever it was—grew stronger until they could finally see the place that they had been heading to.

Surprising enough though, the dragon sanctuary was enclosed with a faint bubble of _something_ which was not _that_ different to the Mist. It was a little less defined, however, and easily detectable by a demigod like him, but it's probably just as dumbfounding to mortals as when they encounter the Mist.

Then again, he shouldn't have been surprised. They _are_ , in his theory, a really long line of descendants of Hecate working together. I mean, they _are_ aware that the Greek gods existed—and that they are not myths—and it should explain how they got magic in the first place.

Not wanting to risk Festus being caught by professional dragon keepers, he dismounted a good distance away. It was better to walk alone than to risk losing one of the most important friends to him after all. Thankfully, it is located deep within a mountain range full of trees—not unlike the one in France (g _ee, wizards really love their mountains and trees, don't they?_ , Leo thinks), so it was easy for Festus to hide.

Being in the Dragon Sanctuary though, he begins to realize that he might not even get the chance to ask anything from anyone with how much busy and in an absolute extreme level of _panic_ they are all in.

He contemplates making a scene but decided against it because, though it would capture their attention, he would most likely be thrown away in the fires for annoying them so much. Granted, he won't burn but the intention is clear.

So what should he do? What _could_ he do?

As he ponders over which action to take, the Fates probably decided to be kind enough to present him an opportunity. Well, "kind" is such a strong word since the Fates hate him, and the opportunity is not exactly... _kind_ per se, but coming from the Fates? It's just as good as.

"What are you nitwits doing just blathering around?!" he hears more than sees a man— _wizard?—_ yell at two people loitering near the back of the dragon enclosure.

The man awfully reminds Leo of Coach Hedge.

"Our best men are out of the country and now I have to deal with you, idiots, gossiping around like some teenagers! Get _movin_ '!" the man continues to rant.

With his back to the enclosure, the wizard, who Leo suspects to be the leader, is not aware that a _HUGE_ metallic grey-silver dragon (not _drakon_ , thank the gods) behind him had howled [1]. Not because it was being subdued—quite the opposite, in fact—but because the said dragon just broke free from the restraints being used by around a dozen people, who Leo suspects to be legitimate ( _what did those two Spanish dudes call them?_ Leo asks himself) dragonologists, to tie the dragon down. [2]

Just as the leader had turned around after the _nitwits_ had yelled at him to _watch out_ , the dragon rears its head back in preparation to most likely breathe fire at the dragonologists, and by the angle, would also hit the leader and the nitwits, just as the dragon also flaps its wings, making a hurricane-like wind, putting everyone back by the strength behind each blow.

At that exact moment, at his angle after creeping closer in curiosity, Leo finally acts immediately, letting his hero-complex and instincts take over his whole persona by running in to help and/or possibly shield the fifteen or more people in direct line of the attack.

Faintly, at the back of his mind, he can hear the experienced men shouting something like _stupefied_ or whatever, as he watches some red sparks hit the majestic beast which all come from the wands these wizards are holding [2][3]. Instead of being a threat to the dragon, it only seems to irritate it more and more.

"GET DOWN!" Leo yells at the men, running from the behind the bushes of the forest he had hidden.

"BOY, GET OUTTA HERE!" he hears the leader yell behind him.

"GET DOWN _NOW_!" he yells at them again, making sure he uses the voice that clearly shows that he meant _business_ , just as he reaches the space between the dragon and the pool of dragonologists.

"GET BEHIND ME, YOU BRAT!" the leader yells once more, much closer.

When he feels the man touch his arm, Leo grabs both his arms, twisting the man enough to lessen his ability to grab him as well, before throwing him back to the other surprised dragonologists with force—actually making all four of them fall down to the ground after their leader just fell on top of them. [4] Leo wants to apologize but there's no time for that at the moment.

"KID, GET OUTTA THERE!" he hears them all yell again.

He never got to reply since the dragon finally bows its head to face them. He hears the screams of the men, yelling "GET BEHIND US!" "TAKE COVER!" "RUN!" behind him. He's touched at their concern but right now, he has a majestic beast to deal with.

Leo spreads his arms out, looking at the dragon's deep-red eyes (reminding him of Festus' ruby eyes), just as it releases a stream of fire sixteen times hotter than boiling water [1], aiming at all the dragonologists with Leo in between. He hears everyone yelling, "NO! THE BOY!" and a stream of curse words which surprised Leo at their _creativity_.

After that, silence.

 _Seeing a boy get fired up by a dragon probably shocked them… Woops._ Leo thinks, forgetting for a moment that his fire abilities is still not normal even amongst these people—even if they were from magic.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists all look away, frozen on the spot, all waiting for their own incoming deaths with the weight of guilt on their shoulders after witnessing a small boy die through fire because of their carelessness and their inability to get the job done.

Unbeknownst to all of them, they were all thinking the same thing: _At least, the guilt from negligence is brief,_ as they all await hell.

You can imagine their confusion when, instead of hearing anguished screams of pain from a boy dying by fire, they instead hear a simple grunt and a small shout of "OH MAN, YOU'RE A STRONG ONE!"

As they all look up, confused on how they were not barbecued, they see the fire from the beast surround them in a perfect circle, as if someone made a ring of fire around them—completely missing them.

In front of them, they see the boy with his hands raised sideways, both hands slightly shaking and moving closer to his own body as if he is pushing two walls on his sides that are squeezing him alive. They watch as the mysterious boy screams and throws his arms sideways with the ring of fire being pushed away by a sudden invisible force before fading away into the cold air as if someone closed their fist around a flame.

When the fire subsides, they are met by the confused gaze of the dragon, staring at the boy who had bent down to place his hands on his knees, panting as if he just went for a run, before straightening himself up. Before any of the dragonologists yell at the boy to get back _immediately_ , they hear it.

A powerful voice echoes through the sanctuary coming from somewhere in front of them, engulfing them with the strength behind it. It may not be immensely deep as if it is from an old bloke, but as if it just reached the peak of its puberty. It takes them a minute to realise that the _boy_ is the one _speaking_.

"Ω δρακον! Nάν δυδ αίλκ άκιερε μισσ," the boy firmly proclaims to be heard, much to the confusion of everyone—including the dragon.  
[Pronunciation: O drakon! Non didlkai kari miss!] [5]  
«O dragon! I command you to stop this reign of terror!»

Meanwhile, to Leo, just as he flicks his arms and hands to push the fires away, he lets out a breath of exhaustion, placing his hands on his knees and momentarily looking down to collect his breath. _This dragon is just plain_ _angry_ , he realized.

Leo looks up to look at the majestic beast, staring at him in confusion the same way Festus had looked at him the first time he tried to fry Leo a year ago.

Finally, he straightens himself up immediately to stare at the dragon in the eyes and feeling something akin to _fear_ coming from the dragon. Still, he doesn't want a repeat of whatever in Tartarus just happened.

"Dude, listen to me: you gotta calm down," Leo tells it loudly.

What shocks him—as well as the people behind him, judging from their gasps of surprise—is the fact that the dragon cocks its head before letting out a small puff of smoke before dropping its mighty wings and bowing its head in submission… to _Leo_ , of all people. Is it because he's made of fire, too?

He never expected the majestic creature to actually _understand_ him, let alone _obey_ him… but somewhere deep inside him, his instincts are telling him to just go on and keep talking… and that it will most likely work.

Hoping for the best, he addresses it the same way as he would Festus.

"You're not actually dangerous, are you?" he asks. "You just don't want to be tied down," he adds, slowly approaching the dragon with his hand outstretched.

He can hear the cries of the men behind him and see a spark hit the dragon in the face, making it roar once more, getting ready to fire.

Leo looks behind him, growling at the dragonologists, "STOP HITTING THE DRAGON!" before turning back to the dragon with his arms raised in front of him as if calming a panicking horse. "CALM DOWN, YOU!" he tells the dragon which makes it pause with its action and go back to its calm demeanor earlier.

Not wasting any more time, Leo removes the distance between himself and the dragon as slowly as possible with a hand outstretched. It wasn't long before he feels the nose of the dragon, nudging at his hands and leaning on his touch, cold in contact which is a spark contrast with the hot breath emitting from the beast, engulfing him in warmth he himself feel more used to.

Oddly enough, it feels like home as if he was either at the forges or near the bonfire at Camp Half-Blood, making him all the more melancholy, remembering that he left his home after being ignored by his own family and being stuck in the past, seeing dead bodies of his old friends appearing on the ground every time he walks along the camp.

As he thinks more and more about this, he doesn't realize that he had unconsciously laid his head on the dragon's long scaly snout, hugging it, just as the dragon itself closes its eyes to lean closer to the son of fire.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists are gobsmacked. They all look at one another as they all realise that this small kid had just inadvertently saved all of their lives; _actually_ tamed a dragon—something that was legitimately deemed _impossible_ since a dragon, especially a Ukrainian Ironbelly, can never be tamed and needs more than a dozen wizards to stun it (by stunning it at the same time); and spoke in a powerful voice that does not sound the same when he speaks in English. [1][5]

Leo, on the other hand, comes back to reality when he hears the loud voices of the men behind him, all wondering aloud on who he is, yelling at him that he should get out of there _right now_ , and questioning anyone near them on what happened and why he isn't dead.

The dragon doesn't pay them much mind as it finally lets its head rest on the ground completely, purring at Leo and letting out puffs of smoke whenever Leo stops stroking his scaly snout.

"You shouldn't be in chains at all," he tells the dragon quietly, looking at parts of the restraints still on the body of the said dragon.

Using a concentrated amount of fire, the color of the fire nearly turning blue, Leo uses it to remove every single restraint still clamped around the dragon's legs, tail, and neck, giving it more freedom.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists start yelling at the boy on what in Merlin's name he is doing because he has no idea what the dragon could do to anyone it comes into contact with, and those ropes and chains took a long time to put around the dragon in the first place!

The leader, on the other hand, stays standing at the centre, looking at the small boy in surprise as he uses elemental wandless magic to remove the binds around the large dragon, yelling, "Iθι! Iθι! _Iθι_!" which he still doesn't understand.  
[Pronunciation: Ithi! Ithi! _Ithi_!] [5]  
«Flee! Flee! _Flee_!»

Leo, on the other hand, goes completely confused when the dragon only gives him a sad note after he kept yelling, "Run! Go away! _Go_!" for once, not obeying.

Instead of flying—which Leo had suspected the dragon would do, the dragon steps back a bit and looks at Leo in the eye before gently turning towards the cage. For some reason, Leo immediately understands that the dragon wants him to follow.

As they both enter the cage, with the dragon lifting a wing for Leo to squeeze in, he finally sees it: dragon eggs. The dragon had eggs to protect and counting the number of indents in the cage, some are missing. [2]

"Your eggs are missing?" he asks the dragon behind him. The sad huff from the dragon was all the answer he needed. "Don't worry. I'll find out what happened."

At his statement, the dragon nods its head and lies down at the entrance, curling her body around the remaining eggs, protective and distressed.

Letting his hand roam the scales of the dragon one last time, Leo finally walks out of the cage and towards the tamers gathered around at the edge of the closure, still talking amongst themselves in a heated argument.

Because the gods hate him so much, they decide to trip him to humiliate him. This is totally not because he is a clumsy human being. No.

All the dragonologists look at him at the same time as he lets out a small curse in Spanish. Every time he doesn't ask for attention, he always gets it.

"Er… I, er…" Leo scratches the back of his head awkwardly, switching his glance from the dragon to the keepers all staring at him in awe and some in fear. "Look, the dragon just misses her eggs… She's angry and she just wants her children back. I just want to know what happened, and if there's a way to bring them back. She's actually very gentle and nice but… from what I've gathered, no one wants to anger a mother by taking away her children…"

Much to Leo's annoyance, they all just stare at him.

"I… er… I guess I'm… sorry? Er, I mean… I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for, kid?" the leader asks, moving forward to stand in front of Leo who is proud to say is the same height as the man. "You just saved us!"

Leo glances at the other men who seem to look uncomfortable at the fact that a teenager like him could save fifteen adults from a freaking _dragon_. Their leader, however, may look intimidating—especially with the scars on his arms and face—but the look in his eyes show a gentleness and fatherly vibe… like Chiron.

"It's… It's nothing," Leo replies awkwardly.

Yes, before, he would grab every opportunity to brag about it with the other six demigods but only because the six demigods had done more impressive things than he did. They're much more amazing. They're much more brilliant.

Talking to a dragon and handling that much fire were nothing compared to saving Olympus, defeating a Titan, or earning the blessing of Mars. It is nothing compared to putting Gaea to eternal sleep, being the architect of Olympus, and a favorite of Hecate.

He's just good ol' Leo, alone in a bunker, making jokes and having not one problem in his life like some prince of laid-back idiots.

"It's not nothing, kiddo!" one of the two nitwits, both of whom had also moved forward to stand behind the leader, exclaims.

"I'm Leo," he finally grumbles, not liking being called a kid.

"Ahhh, a name then," the leader says. "I'm Alex—" he gestures to the man on his left—"this is Crock—" he gestures to the man on his right—"this is Ford." [6] Alex looks at Leo intently. "The others behind me are some of the best dragonologists in the continent but what you did was _amazing_. How did you know what to do?" Alex asks.

At the question from their leader, this probably triggered everyone else to start asking him questions. Never mind that he could probably be exhausted after doing so many things at once. Okay, it's not really that tiring but he hadn't had that much training after coming back from the dead since he spent more time in Bunker Nine sitting on his desk and building smaller things… but he _might_ have been exhausted.

"Er… You're American, too?" Leo asks Alex instead, flustered.

"Huh? Oh! Yes! You're from Ilvermorny, too, then?" Alex asks and Leo reaches back to his brain and remembers that Ilvermorny is the American Wizard School.

"Yeah! Definitely! Dropped out though," he adds. "Been too much of a pain in the backside to the school, apparently."

Another Rule to Being a Good Liar: Add hints of truth—bonus points if they're embarrassing—because people would more likely believe it since you shared something so "personal" but nothing that makes it too personal and fake. Choose your white lies with caution and precision.

Alex barks a laughter at his words.

"Fontaine didn't give you a chance, did he?" [7]

"Apparently, not. The principal probably hates my guts," Leo laughs nervously to avoid the topic of the school because he has no idea what a fontaine is.

"You mean _headmaster_?" one of the hostile keepers corrects suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot that we call him that…"

" _Really_?" the hostile keeper asks.

"Yeah, sorry, I was in the system so I went to more mort— _normal_ schools than the amount of years I spent in Ilvermorny."

"Your parents were nomajs?" Alex asks.

 _Schist, what in Hades are nomajs?_ Leo starts to panic at that but thankfully, Ford unintentionally saves him from making an idiot out of himself.

"Probably not," he says. "Also, ugh, call them muggles, not nomajs. Stop being such an American." Ford rolls his eyes which earned him a hit on the back of his head by Alex, making Ford apologize profusely and indignantly. "Besides," he adds after apologizing, "the boy's too powerful to be muggleborn."

"Oi!" Crock exclaims indignantly. "I'm just as good as you are with magic even though my parents are both muggles! Proud muggleborn forever!"

Ford sighs in reply. "I _mean_ , moron, that the boy might have had some heritage that made him more powerful than _any_ wizard—even a bloody _pureblood_ like me. He just saved our lives without a wand, you know."

Leo files the information in his brain: _Muggles are basically mortals, people with no magic, or aren't demigods. Americans call muggles "nomajs", apparently. Muggleborns are wizards born with muggle/nomaj/mortal parents. I assume half-bloods mean one has magic and one is mortal… er… muggle, whatever. That man said pureblood which I assume both parents are wizards… Oh Styx, that is disgusting, descendants of Hecate actually married each other?_

"System?" Alex asks in curiosity, bringing Leo back to reality.

Leo doesn't have to pretend when he looks down on the ground and shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Foster system."

Third Rule to Being a Good Liar: When you make a mistake, give one real uncomfortable truth to make them drop the subject. Bonus points if it could get them to sympathize.

Crock hits the hostile man's head. "Now, you've done it, Sterling!"

"It's all right." Leo laughs nervously. "Hey, I probably went to more foster systems than I ever did spending time in nomaj schools," he adds, using the slang word immediately for effect.

"How can you spend more time in foster systems?" Sterling asks.

"Stop being such a right bastard, mate," Ford warns.

Leo licks his dried lips. "Can we not talk about that?" he laughs nervously, unconsciously touching his suspenders when the haunting face of his abusive foster mother, Teresa, enters his mind. [8]

Crock hits Sterling at the back of his head again. "I should let the dragon burn you or something," he tells Sterling, making the latter scowl.

"Speaking of fire," Alex begins once more, "how'd you do that… earlier?"

"I…" He shrugs. "I guess it's a mixture of instinct and experience."

"What do you mean?" someone else he doesn't know asks, making everyone else stare at him—which is seriously creeping him out.

"Well, I kinda already encountered a dragon before so I knew what it was about to do… Did it to me earlier, too…"

"Hold on a minute," the same hostile keeper starts, "what are you even doing here? The wards were made strongly around this area. You're not supposed to even see what's inside—let alone get in."

Leo's heart sinks. How is he supposed to get away with this now?

"I didn't feel any wards or whatever… but it was kinda blurry, okay, I admit… so I got curious." He shrugs. "There wasn't much magic around… I guess I know why you're secluded from human civilization now, I suppose."

"The boy did just use some wandless magic, mate," Ford tells the man, who shrugs and agrees with the logic behind that.

"Explains why you easily threw me earlier too… That's one powerful accidental magic I've ever seen…" Alex adds, making everyone else murmur in agreement.

 _Just saying I can do wandless magic can make me get away with anything on why I can be kinda powerful, too_ , Leo thinks to himself. _Could be useful later._

"Doesn't explain why you'd go around with a death wish," Crock says.

Leo winces. "I was just here for some questions, all right? I came in to you being attacked and… well… I couldn't NOT help you, you know? I can make some things move with my brain… I guess, magic, then… so I kinda use it all the time until I kinda mastered it… like Telekinesis or something…" he adds.

"A natural wandless wizard with a good heart," Crock whispers with a whistle. "How did you tame the dragon, though? The things you said… What was it?"

 _I said something different? OHHH… It must have been Ancient Greek._ Leo tries hard not to think about the fact that he didn't really do anything special, and that anyone from the camp can tame a dragon since they all speak Ancient Greek.

"My family speaks it… I actually don't usually know when I'm using it. It just happens, you know?" Leo replies. Still not technically lying.

"That's… unusual…" Sterling states, staring at him intently. He really doesn't like that guy. Leo wonders why he won't just stay back and watch like the other dragonologists as he talks to Alex. It's almost unnerving how simply being stared at by Sterling can make Leo want to say the truth.

"Guess it's hereditary," Ford suggests.

"What? Like Parseltongue?" Sterling asks.

"Well, dragons _are_ reptiles, too… so it makes sense that they have their own exclusive language with people, too," Ford reasons.

"Umm… what's a Parseltongue?" Leo asks.

"Parseltongue is the language of the snakes. Parselmouths are those who can speak to snakes using Parseltongue… They're incredibly rare and only the heirs of Slytherin can speak it," Crock answers.

"Slytherin?" Leo asks. "What?"

"Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders at Hogwarts…"

"That's the school in Britain, right?"

Alex sighs. "I'll take over from here," he tells everyone else. "One American to another… You're hounding the boy with information. Come on, kid, I'll answer those questions you came here for. GET TO WORK!" he yells at everyone else sternly, making Leo's hair stand on edge at the sudden firmness from Alex's voice.

Alex walks away from the now dispersing group and Leo follows him.

"So, kid, I'm guessing you didn't have a nice childhood—"

"You have no idea," Leo interrupts.

"—but rest assured, you can ask me anything you want… You came here with questions, right?" he asks and Leo nods.

"I wanted to know more on how dragons breathe fire… Their anatomy, and how good their forces and strengths are… _Everything_."

Alex blinks. "Okay, I might not be the best person to ask that… Actually, you kinda remind me of this new kid we had… Well, he's been here for about five years now but he's one of the best already—loves dragons to death, that kid… Maybe you should ask him—Oh, _shoot_ , I forgot he left."

"He left? This place? Why?!" Leo asks disbelievingly.

"Well, not _left_ left. He and some others went to Hogwarts."

Leo looks back to his conversation with the brothers in France. "I heard there's a tournament, there?" he asks.

Alex nods. "Yup. I don't know what the hell they're thinking, actually. Making kids fight dragons?" He shakes his head.

Leo bites his lips before saying that demigods fight things worse than that at the same age… but then again, these are wizards, descendants and not direct demigods.

"If you want more information on dragons, you should ask Charlie Weasley. I heard he once talked to Newt Scamander as a kid. Not interested in anything except dragons… I think you two would work well together, honestly. You're gonna have to wait for a while, though."

Leo shakes his head. "No, it's fine. I'm actually a traveller," he says. "Going around the world and all that. I'm having some fun."

"Are you a runaway, then?" Alex asks cautiously.

Leo nods. "Ran away from six foster homes… but I've been into more foster homes because I got moved a bunch of times. I got into so much trouble."

"What'd you do to get kicked out of Ilvermorny?" Alex asks.

Leo shrugs. "I did a lot of things. I blew up, you know? Got some people a bit angry… Had some enemies and all that… Explosions can kill people, you know?"

Technically, he wasn't answering Alex's question. He was describing the war.

"Doesn't sound like the kid who just jumped in front of a dragon to save grown old men," he comments.

"What can I say? I'm unique, that way…" Alex chuckles at that. "So who's Salazar Slytherin and why do those people act like he's the devil or something?"

"I heard he never accepted muggleborns and muggles at their time… but I don't know… I'm not a Brit so I shouldn't really talk much about it but I don't think Slytherin's much at fault, you know? I mean, I'm not saying he was right but… there were witch trials at the time… They burned wizards. For a time, wizards and witches were scared of fire because of that." [9]

Leo finds himself paling… _Wizards and witches were scared of fire._ All his guilt and insecurity with his fire are slowly seeping through his body and he wills it not to.

"Still, besides Slytherin, there are other houses: Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the wise, and Hufflepuff for the loyal… and Slytherins are for the cunning. Between you and me: _all_ of them base everything on names and houses and such… Good thing we're from Ilvermorny, eh?"

Leo chuckles nervously. "Yeah…"

"Speaking of: what's your house?"

"Me?"

"Yeah… I'm a Thunderbird."

Panicking, Leo replies, "Oh, me, too…" Before Alex replies, he adds, "Anyway, I seriously want to learn more about dragons. Do you mind telling me where Hogwarts is? Maybe I could go talk to him?"

"Yeah, we actually have a map here, just in case the others need back-up for the tournament… Come with me."

A few minutes later, Leo is on his way to Hogwarts with a map whilst several dragonologists wonder why the Ukrainian Ironbelly has no chains, and why some of the trees surrounding the area are singed.

* * *

 **FOOTNOTES  
**

* * *

[1] The Ukranian Ironbelly, according to the Wiki, has an immense wingspan, long talons and metallic grey-silver rough scales said to be as hard as steel. It was the largest breed of dragon which reaches up to six tonnes, with deep red eyes.

The Ironbelly can produce jets of flame up to 3,560 degrees Fahrenheit (1960 degrees Celsius), over sixteen times hotter than the boiling point of water.

[2] According to the Ministry of Magic, dragons are level XXXXX beasts. They are said to be impossible to tame or domesticate. Dragons cannot be subdued easily for spells have less affect on them due to their strong scales and resistance, however, when hit in the right spot, or hit by multiple spells at the same time, they can be subdued or, at least, weakened a bit. According to Newt Scamander's book, dragons don't put their eggs in nests.

[3] Stupefy is the Stunning Spell, which renders the target either unconscious or dazed. It manifests itself as a jet of scarlet light.

[4] As stated in the Wiki:

Being a demigod, Leo is stronger than a regular mortal. Although he has a small stature and is definitely the weakest male demigod of the Seven; indicating Leo is pretty weak for a demigod. However, Leo has been shown to be quite a lot stronger than he looks as he used two silver-tipped blacksmith hammers to smash full-grown monsters that got his way.

[5] These are researched and it came from the BBC series called "Merlin," who's the last dragonlord in the show, is the only one capable of speaking Dragon Language which is actually Ancient Greek, according to those who made those lines.

When a dragonlord uses Dragon Language to a dragon, the dragon would actually obey whatever the dragonlord says. So anyone in Camp Half-Blood can actually tame a dragon. They can never tame Festus because Festus is not an actual dragon when he went berserk, and Festus communicates through morse code.

[6] The man who portrayed Charlie Weasley in the HP films has the name of "Alex Crockford." I thought it seemed appropriate.

[7] Agilbert Fontaine is the headmaster of Ilvermonry as of 2016. I'll just assume he was the headmaster back in the 90's as well.

[8] Something canon in Blood of Olympus, and something I will never get over.

[9] In Merlin, all practitioners of magic were scared of fire because of King Uther's demand of having them burned at the pyre in public at Camelot.


	3. Where'd This Come From?

Leo couldn't believe he spent nearly an hour in Romania. It left him quite a bit drained on the amount of information he found along the way—information about Ilvermorny and Hogwarts; Charlie Weasley; dragons; and such. He's getting better at manipulating the Mist. He's not as good as any of the children of Hecate; he's _not_ even remotely a quarter as good as Hazel; and he is not a child from the Big Three…

…but he is an observant demigod and he had watched them all train to perfect their mastery of the Mist. He can do enough. He only has to think about what these people want to see. The two brothers wanted to see something amazing so he let them think that they saw a deer in the forest rather than a demigod. He let all those dragonologist think they had managed to subdue the dragon instead of recalling a certain teenager saving their lives.

One thing you gotta do when you're on your own: Watch and learn.

Leo yawns as his exhaustion finally catches up to him. It feels like he and Festus had been flying over several countries for days. Not for the first time, Leo curses Gaea for being the Earth. She just _had_ to change Pangaea [1], doesn't she?

Then again, he shouldn't complain. Calculating the distance and the average flight speed via planes, it would take mortals around three and a half hours from Romania to Scotland. He wonders how people could even manage getting in a plane and taking _hours_ and _hours_ just sitting there, _waiting_. It's horrible.

Though it was trying to travel patiently with Festus and the Argo II—despite their already magically-induced speed as well as the many monsters he gets to fight in between traveling, Leo has to admit he's never bored… and he _abhors_ boredom.

Turning his head, he judges the time by using the position of the sun as well as calculating the position of the shadows of any object on the ground, he manages to estimate that it's only been twenty minutes past two—which means it's only been twenty minutes since he left Romania.

Just as he realizes this, he also groans at the reminder that he has a magical tool belt and it would have been quicker if he had just asked for a watch to check the time instead of just using mathematics.

Then again, he _is_ a Math genius. He's been using Math since he was born and he's even better than adults at the age of eight. It would be a shame if he doesn't use his genius skills from time to time. [2] He's just glad Percy wasn't there. He'll probably be named _Annabeth 2.0_ … only hotter and manlier, obviously.

 _Oops, here it is_ , he thinks as he is finally met with the North Sea.

Running a hand down his face, Leo wipes away his exhaustion to take a closer look at his surroundings. Gone are the green of trees and now all he could is blue. Blue skies. Blue water. Blue everything. _Percy would have loved this_ , Leo thinks to himself. That guy seriously loves the color blue. Leo can't stand it anymore, and it's only been a minute.

To check the accuracy of his calculations, he summons a watch from his ever reliable tool-belt to see that it's been two minutes since he last checked the time.

"Well, buddy," Leo yells at Festus to be heard against the speed they're using, "guess we're in for a _long long_ journey."

He collapses against Festus dramatically to prove his distress, making Festus snort at him in reply but otherwise ignore his dramatics. His master is _always_ so dramatic—especially considering that they'll be arriving to their destination in a few more minutes.

Thanks to the updates Leo had done to Festus for the past two months, the bronze dragon can travel further than he usually does. It's a wonder how Leo can still manage to hold on to the velocity they have.

Leo is grateful he isn't choking from lack of oxygen from having to travel at this pace. He had some help from the Athena and Hephaestus kids to place a bubble around Festus to help those who wish to travel quickly via bronze dragon.

"Snorting at me, are you?" Leo asks his companion, huffing and crossing his arms as he pouts at the back of the dragon's head. "What has the world come to? Even my only companion is against me!" he exclaims at the sky.

While meant to be a joke, the statement quickly falls flat just as he says it. As he sobers up, Leo begins to reflect on his current predicament, and tries to make sure to internalize his problems before having any other human interaction. Gods know what happened in Romania—cuddling up to a dragon in front of her keepers.

As he ponders and wonders whether he's even doing the right thing, just as he did in Romania, he starts to subconsciously pat Festus as well.

No, this is a vacation and he's not running away—not completely. He's just… taking a break, and he's here for research—to improve Festus more and upgrade him as much as possible, so Festus could actually feel like a full-on dragon. With that in mind, Leo nods his head in determination. He _will_ return to camp.

Then he had a foreboding feeling.

He isn't sure whether it was the sudden flash of green below—indicating that they were flying over land again, or the strange feeling he always has at a nearing monster that brought him back from his own head. Perhaps both?

"Holy Hephaestus! How long have we been—?"

— | — | —• | ••• | — | • | •—• | ••• |||| •— | •••• | • | •— | —••

"Monsters ahead?" Leo asks Festus. "What kind of—?"

He senses it—not the monsters—but shifting on his seat, he guides Festus to a stop as he takes a closer look at what he just saw. At first he doesn't see anything but the feeling won't stop tingling at the pit of his stomach.

As he narrows his eyes at the area, checking to see if the Mist was involved, he finally sees a transparent sort of shield which spans across the horizon.

"That's a stronger Mist shield than the one in Romania! I think—" he holds on to Festus tightly as the latter rears its head back and emits a mighty roar. "What's wrong, buddy? That's not a monster. That's probably—" [3]

Then it hits him like a Khione to the face.

At first, he nearly collapses with the sudden cold. The blue sky starts to loosen its color and in his panic, he tries to flare up but can only make a flicker of fire before it douses itself from the cold air.

Leo rarely gets cold or hot—having his very own high body temperature does that, but to be slammed by the suddenness of iciness? Without even having to prepare for it? Nor creep up on him slowly as it usually does? Leo's practically powerless against it.

He feels as if ice is forming inside him as well—within the blood in his veins. Leo has never known what it feels like to be this cold in his life. It feels as if he is just drowning—drowning in the air with the cold filling his lungs.

 _Is this Khione's doing?_ he thinks to himself. She _is_ the daughter of Boreas, the god of the north wind… and she _does_ hate his guts—but this is stronger than any of the attacks she had ever used against him. This is much more _sinister_.

The roar he should hear from the velocity of Festus' flight and the strong wind that had suddenly formed suddenly disappears and he can only hear the silence. Is he going deaf? How could he?

He comes back to himself when Festus starts clicking… and rather than hear it, he could feel it clashing as he keeps his hold on Festus.

•• | —•—• | • |||| ••—• | — | •—• | — | •• | —• | —• |||| •• | —• | ••• | •• | —•• | • |||| •—•—•— |||| • | —• | —• | •• | —• | • | ••• |||| —• | • | • | —•• |||| •••• | • | •— | — |||| •—•—•— |||| —•• | — |||| —• | — | — |||| —••• | ••— | •—• | —• |||| —•— | — | ••— | •—• | ••• | • | •—•• | ••—• |||| •— | —• | •— | •• | —•  
[ice forming inside . engines need heat . do not burn yourself again]

With a cry of frustration and new found determination over his losing mastery of fire, Leo wills his body to fire up to save himself and Festus from the sudden cold.

He regains his awareness after he starts to obsessively go back to the times he had let himself go with his anger and determination to heat things up—to every moment he used his fire—moments he was never proud of but felt necessary. _Except the time I killed my own mo—let's not think about that_ , he tells himself.

Though he had successfully put himself on fire after a few more moments of concentration, grabbing on to Festus' hide to conduct his heat through the bronze metallic beast for the ice to melt, and making him happy, it doesn't save him from the severe level of hopelessness that suddenly slammed into his heart.

It feels as if nothing would ever go right in the world.

Lost in solemn thoughts, Leo does not notice the shadowy figures surrounding them much more intently than they did moments before—until Festus moves.

Overwhelmed with the sadness which had settled itself deep in his core, Leo begins to lead Festus away to realize the predicament they are in. All four figures around them don't seem to look so friendly. In fact, Leo can say that they all appear like the Grim Reaper—except when Percy, Hazel, and Frank told them about how they freed Thanatos, the god of death looks _nothing_ like these four _at all_.

He's never even heard of these creatures before.

"Schist!" Leo exclaims along with other Spanish curses.

Still off-kilter, he guides Festus to dodge the unknown creatures… and it was _not_ easy, that's for sure. When one floats down to move near them, Leo curses up a streak since he and Festus barely dodges it before another one nears them as well.

Leo's eyes roll back as he falls within himself—being buried more with the cold as it cuts his insides.

Far away, he hears the screaming.

" _Wait here, mijo. I'll only be a minute._ "  
" _She can't hear you._ "  
" _Leave my mother alone!_ "  
" _How will you stop me?_ "  
" _Leo! Mijo! Mijo!_ "

Leo watches as memory after memory flashes through his mind. He watches as he was forced to run, as he went through every trial Tía Callida had put him in, as he got screamed at by his Aunt Rosa, as he stayed with his abusive foster mother Teresa, as he lived in the streets after running away from foster homes, as he got possessed by an eidolon, as he died, and back to when he killed his own mother.

Leo is completely submerged into nothingness—not unlike the same feeling he had when he had died.

Feeling his master's hold loosen on his reins, Festus gives out a worried roar and surges on forward, aiming to get past the strange creatures he had been trying to burn with his breath since Leo himself can't seem to do it. With the young master in mind, Festus focuses on getting away—unfortunately, getting in the path of the looming shadow of a creature above them.

With a horrifying screech, it swoops down on them, conveniently making the dark creatures move away and flee, but unfortunately breaking Festus' wing in the whole process. As Festus maintains his balance to keep the young master alive, he turns to see the green and yellow drakon turn towards them once more.

Making sure his young master's safe, the draconian beings lock themselves in an intense battle—one in offense and one in defense. To Festus's disadvantage, his malfunctioning wing is slowing him down, and his companion is still unconscious to hold on properly—giving the bronze dragon a limited amount of movements to do against the mighty drakon.

With an attack aimed at his back with his master on it, Festus is forced to roll, dislodging the demigod in the process. However, the position the two beings are in leaves the drakon vulnerable and so Festus seizes the opportunity to attack. He lets loose a volley of flames at the drakon's underbelly which, in turn, makes the drakon even more angry, attacking Festus much viciously than before.

The creature uses its massive talons to tear Festus enough but suddenly stops as it was suddenly pushed away by a giant boulder. Losing his enemy, Festus goes down to try and reach the young demigod—only to be attacked by a barrage of arrows and stones. Roaring in anger, Festus lets his flames loose to burn the arrows into crisps. He was so close now—just a few feet away and…

Festus screeches just as his whole left wing falls apart from his body at the sudden huge boulder that hit it, just like what was used to push the drakon away. Using his senses, Festus sees that his demigod fell further away.

The last thing Festus sees is his master being engulfed with trees before his control disk finally makes the bronze dragon blackout.

Meanwhile, Leo is suspended deep in his mind. He can feel the wind buffeting him as he fell from Festus, watching above him as his buddy fights with the wingless Maeonian drakon… but he was helpless to his injured companion, unable to do anything but watch and fall because of his stupid mushy distressed mind.

It was excruciating.

He tries to break out of it but the utter despair within his soul is too much for him to bear as he keeps passing in and out of unconsciousness as he keeps falling. The trajectory making him lose his oxygen fast.

He wasn't even able to scream out for his friend when he sees things which he can assume are arrows and giant freaking _boulders_ attack both Festus and drakon.

When Festus starts to fall from the sky, with his left wing falling apart with him, Leo starts to get swallowed by the tall trees of another forest. _Wizards and forests_.

Not for the first time, he wonders why the fates keep making him crash from the sky but he doesn't have long to think about that.

As the trees stretch taller above him with his dragon falling from the sky and heading in another direction, the ever familiar darkness finally welcomes him with a comforting embrace.

* * *

 **—oOo—**

* * *

Six minutes ago.

"This is why Flitwick is my favourite teacher ever."

" _Professor_ Flitwick."

"Really, Ron? Professor Flitwick? Since when was he your favourite?"

"About five seconds ago."

"You _only_ like him _now_ because he let us out _early_ , Ronald."

"Well, Ron's not perfect, Hermione."

"Stop encouraging him, Harry!"

"Well, I'm not gonna apologise for appreciating Flitwick's good decisions."

" _Professor_ Flitwick… and you two are _impossible_."

Both of them snicker as she huffs fondly in annoyance. The three of them walk side-by-side as they usually do after coming out of the Charms classroom.

Instead of finishing at three o'clock, as stated in their timetable, Professor Flitwick lets them out thirty-five minutes earlier so he could be able to help the other professors with charming up more rooms for their coming guests tonight.

It would have been earlier had the students finished their task quicker but no one's really complaining. Thirty minutes is still precious time to students who are not named Hermione Granger.

The three trouble-magnets had immediately walked out of the classroom to head to Hagrid's Hut—to have some time to cool themselves down before their Double Potions. Three hours with the snake is… too horrible for a nice day outside. Plus, the man did just invite them over anytime and the three students didn't have the time to have tea with the gentle man.

"D'you reckon Hagrid's got another creature in his house?" Ron asks.

"I'll be surprised if he didn't," Hermione replies.

"Hopefully, not another dragon," Harry comments, snickering just as much as Ron whilst Hermione tries not to snicker herself but to no avail.

"Yeah, breaking the law is tiring," Ron adds, making Hermione say his name as a way of warning—not for the first time.

As they step foot outside, Harry notices a flock of golden birds flying down to the Forbidden Forest just as Hermione gasps at the sight. Not resisting something as phenomenal as this, the three of them run towards Hagrid's Hut to look at the golden birds closer since they seem to decide to land deep within the Forbidden Forest, probably several kilometres behind Hagrid's Hut.

"What the bloody hell are those?" Ron asks, squinting at the sky.

"Ron! Language!" Hermione lectures but both boys ignore her.

"I don't know…Magical birds?" Harry asks himself out loud.

"But they…" Hermione starts confusedly. "...look metallic."

Harry blinks because, for a moment, the flock was not a flock. It looked like it was a bronze metal ship or something falling out of the sky. He shakes his head, however, to see that it was just his imagination… and yep, golden birds there.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ron tells her.

"I'm not joking!" Hermione replies indignantly.

"M—must be a trick of the light, 'Mione," Harry tells her, unsure of it himself.

Just as all three of them reach the door to Hagrid's Hut, staring at the golden whatever-they-are, they hear a loud crash from the West of Hagrid's Hut, deep in the Forbidden Forest but doesn't seem to be as far as where Aragog's lair is located.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione only share one look before all three of them run to the very location of where they heard the crash.

"It's here somewhere, right?" Harry asks.

"Over there!" Hermione gasps, pointing at the area with nearly destroyed trees and a large crater.

Before Harry and Hermione run over there, Ron immediately grabs them both by the elbow before saying, "We don't know what's out there."

"He's right," Harry tells Hermione. "We should be careful."

Hermione, in turn, nods at Harry before looking at Ron at the corner of her eye though neither boys notice it since they are both intent on what's ahead.

Before they see what's inside, though they were near enough to see it, all three of them turn behind them when they hear an even louder crash which sounded like it happened even deeper in the Forbidden Forest. The first set of birds which fled somewhere far only confirmed how far away it was.

"What was—" Ron was about to ask but was cut off.

"Oh my gods!" Hermione gasps, wrapping her arms around Ron's neck, and burying her face on his chest to hide her face from something.

As one, both Ron and Harry turn to look at what made their friend upset. They both finally see what is in the middle of the large crater.

A corpse.

Ron wraps an arm around her, still looking at the body in shock, whilst Harry moves forward to go near the body after a small nod with Ron, both communicating and agreeing that it's better not to get Hermione even more upset.

The corpse, which has shaggy black hair and pointy ears, wearing a white shirt which has sleeves folded to the elbows, braces, dark trousers, and a toolbelt, is on his side. It looks like the mysterious person tried his best to lessen the blow on his head by placing his arms behind it which means he must have fallen on his back.

"Poor sod," Harry whispers to himself. "Wonder what happened…"

"Dunno, mate…" Ron replies, making Hermione whimper.

"You don't think it's got something to do with the second crash?" Harry asks.

"Or the golden birds?" Ron suggests.

When Harry is beside the boy, he slowly turns him to lie on his back, gasping at the fact that he is actually around their age, with an orange shirt underneath the white collarless shirt he was wearing and a leather necklace with one bead in it.

…and a chest that's moving.

"He's alive," he whispers to himself before exclaiming, "Merlin! He's still alive!"

"What?" Ron asks as Hermione finally turns back around to look in the crater.

To check further, Harry grabs the boy's wrist to check the still beating albeit a bit weak pulse.

"Oh, Merlin! We need to get him to Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione yells, wiping her cheeks and immediately putting on her headstrong determined face.

"Ron! Get in here!" Harry yells, making Ron jump in the crater to land on the other side of the mysterious lad, helping Harry pull him up by wrapping each arm around their shoulders.

"Harry?! Ron?! Hermione?! What're yeh lot doin' 'ere?!"

"Hagrid! Help!" they all yell.

Immediately their Care of Magical Creatures Professor comes quickly, panting slightly after running in a panic at three distressed students.

"What happened?! Are yeh hurt?!"

"No," Hermione quickly replies, "but someone else is."

"Over here, Hagrid!" Harry and Ron both yell, putting the boy down again as Hagrid walks down the crater.

"Merlin! What happened 'ere?" he asks, carrying the boy in his arms with ease.

Whilst Ron and Hermione tell Hagrid what they've noticed, Harry walks behind them in silence, secretly glad the boy's unconscious because if he is anything like him, it would be a bit humiliating to be seen cradled like a baby.

"Yeh shouldn't go running in the Forbidden Forrest like tha'," Hagrid reprimands them. "Yeh dunno what's out there."

Harry snorts, earning everyone's attention. "Oh, we _know_." Ron snickers.

"Honestly, you two, someone is injured and you're laughing out here."

"Oh, come on, 'Mione, you've had your share of adventures in the Forest," Ron points out.

"Oh, _yes_ , running away from a _werewolf_ and seeing my friend nearly die from a hundred dementors! Oh, that's _fun_." The two boys stare at her before she finally smiles. "Okay, it was a little fun."

"I just realised we've never been in the Forbidden Forest together before… like all three of us. When I first encountered Voldemort in our First Year, I was with Draco and you were together. Second Year, I was with Ron. Third Year, I was with you."

"Yeah, spiders for me. Dementors for 'Mione," Ron says. "Dunno what's worse, to be honest… then again, Draco got You-Know-Who—nope, no, spiders. Definitely spiders are the worst."

Harry and Hermione share a glance before shaking their heads in amusement.

"All those times, yeh kids were out there saving people… and 'ere yeh are again with the saving," Hagrid comments, frowning at the heavily injured boy in his arms.

"Can't we go faster?" Ron asks worriedly. "Looks like he _really_ needs Pomfrey."

"Can't jostle him too much. Might make it worse," Hagrid replies.

"But how could he still be alive?" Harry asks. "That crater was too big. I'm not a genius but even I know that means he fell from a high distance."

"I dunno, but what matters is that he's alive," Hagrid replies just as they reach the doors to the Hospital Wing.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione yells at the empty room.

"Miss Granger?" the matron asks upon exiting her office at the sound of her voice. Her eyes immediately drops onto Harry. "What did you do this time, Potter?"

Before Harry comments, Hagrid gently places the boy on one of the beds, placing Madam Pomfrey's attention from Harry to the boy immediately. Hagrid, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all tell her what they saw in the forest—the crater. Madam Pomfrey looks at them in disbelief especially looking at the boy who doesn't seem as injured as he would have been if he really had fallen to such great heights..

That is, before she waves her wand over the boy's body and the diagnosis on the floating parchment started appearing.

* * *

 **—oOo—**

* * *

 **Date:** October 30, 1994. Friday.

 **Leonidas Valdez.** [4]  
 **Age:** 15\. [5]  
 **Gender:** Male.  
 **Blood(s):** God. Muggle.  
 **Batch:** N/A.  
 **House(s):** N/A.  
 **Parent(s):** Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths and fire. Esperanza Valdez.  
 **Sibling(s):** Several paternal half-siblings.  
 **Title(s):** Defeater of Gaea. Hero of Olympus. The Son of Fire. Admiral of the Argo II. Creator of the Argo II. Master of Dragons. Head Counselor of Cabin Nine.

 **Physical Condition(s):** [6][7][8]  
Small Cranio-cerebral Damage.  
Small Subarachnoid Haemorrhage.  
Sprain of Bones:  
\- Skull.  
\- Ribs.  
\- Cervical vertebrae.  
\- Thoracic vertebrae.  
\- Femur.  
Damage of Internal Organs.  
\- Spleen. Small laceration from Deceleration.  
Slight Abrasions.

 **Mental Condition(s):  
** Combat neurosis.

 **Note(s):  
** Survival due to godly DNA:  
\- Superhuman durability.  
\- Superhuman strength.  
\- Superhuman intelligence.

* * *

 **—oOo—**

* * *

"This is simply not possible!" Madam Pomfrey exclaims, much to the surprise of everyone else in the room.

"I'll tell Professor Dumbledore what happened," Hagrid offers, starting to leave, but Madame Pomfrey stops him.

"There's no need for that, Hagrid. After I take care of Mister Valdez, here, I will go to the headmaster myself," she says, going back to the office to grab everything she needs for such an impossible case.

After casting _Scourgify_ on the boy to clean up the soot and dirt on his body, she only does several castings of _Episkey_ for the sprains on his bones and put some Murtlap Essence on the abrasions on the boy's skin.

"That's enough for now," she tells the kids and Hagrid. "I want you to look after him for a moment while I talk to the headmaster about our new visitor. This is a matter of urgency and it will take a while but I do hope none of you will get in trouble while I'm gone. Are we clear?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all nod, sitting down on the bed beside the boy's.

"Alright, if he wakes—though I'm not sure he will, I want you to give him this Blood-Replenishing Potion _immediately_ ," she says, handing Hermione the mentioned potion. "He has some blood clotting in his brain as well as some cuts on his spleen from the fall, so there is some internal bleeding for him, though it's not as damaging as it should be. Check whether he has some brain damage as well. Ask him questions. Do you understand?"

They all say their affirmation.

"If he doesn't calm down, give him this," she says, handing Ron a vial. "It's a calming draught. He might need it."

With a small nod from Madam Pomfrey, she turns back to her office to use the floo connecting towards the headmaster's, locking the door behind her.

"I have to go back meself," Hagrid says. "Yer little journey in the forest stopped me from checking on the second crash. I have ter know if it's a threat or not."

"We can help," Harry suggests.

"No, yeh heard Madam Pomfrey. This lad's yer responsibility, now. Take care o' him, okay?" Hagrid tells them. Reluctantly, Harry and Ron finally nod as genuinely as Hermione does, reassuring Hagrid to leave them in the Hospital Wing.

When the door closes behind Hagrid, the three all look at the peaceful face of the person they found.

"Madam Pomfrey said he should be dead," Harry whispers out loud.

"Who is he, then? If he can survive that fall?" Hermione asks.

Ron snorts. "The Boy-Who-Lived?" he suggests, making Harry laugh.

Hermione hits them both at the back of their heads. "I'm serious. What if he's dangerous? Shouldn't we think about that?"

"Hermione, look at him, he's about our year!" Ron sighs, gesturing at the boy. "I don't even think he has a wand on him. Did he, Harry?"

Harry shakes his head. "No, maybe it got lost somewhere… Also, Voldemort was just a year older than us when he killed Moaning Myrtle with the Basilisk, and he didn't need a wand for that either," Harry adds, making Hermione shudder at the memory of having been petrified by that snake. "Sorry, Hermione."

"It's fine…" she replies with a small shudder.

"All right, point taken," Ron finally agrees, shrugging. "So who the bloody hell is he, then?" he asks. Hermione doesn't even berate him for his language.

"His last name's Valdez, according to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione adds.

"Who on Earth is Valdez, then?" Harry asks himself out loud, "Because I don't think even Voldemort or Dumbledore would've survived that fall."

* * *

 **FOOTNOTES**

* * *

[1] About 335 million years ago, there was only one continent called Pangaea. All the islands and continents we have today were still connected… but then, around 175 million years ago (160 million years after it was formed), it started to break apart and now we have 7 continents and a gazillion islands.

[2] Genius Intellect. Leo and Annabeth are the only ones amongst the Prophecy of Seven who have this ability. It was canon that Leo is better at math than adults at the age of eight, and with that, we're sure that Leo is most definitely a genius at Science as well—particularly, more in Physics and Chemistry.

[3] Dementors are non-beings. They are not born so they are unkillable. You can't kill something that wasn't born in the first place. They just appear from human emotions or at least, sense human emotions and appear out of nowhere from wherever they are. So humans created them, not gods.

There are no dementors in Greek Mythology—not completely. It's purely wizard or human shit so Leo could not have sensed it with his Ancient Greek senses. Festus, on the other hand, can detect any threat—monster or otherwise.

[4] In the Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle, Calypso calls Leo "Leonidas" once. Leo responded by saying and we quote, "Hey, I told you never to call me that." The fact that he had not responded by saying that Leonidas isn't his name, and the fact that he seems to hate it mean that Leonidas is his legit name. Only people who hate their names and insist on a nickname behave that way.

[5] Leo was 15 when he defeated Gaea, and the whole thing that happened in The Heroes of Olympus was supposed to be 2010 so Leo would have been born in 1995. Yes, we know… but bear with us LMAO.

[6] Kiran Kumar, J. V., Srivastava, A. K. (2013, January-March). Original Research Paper: Pattern of Injuries in fall from Height. J Indian Acad Forensic Med, 35(1), 47-50. ISSN: 097-0973

[7] Kholi, A., Banerjee, K. K. (2006, October). Pattern of injuries in fatal falls from buildings. Med Sci Law, 46(4), 335-341. doi: 10.1258/rsmmsl.46.4.335

[8] Yes, we researched and there should have been more to that list but Leo is not a mortal. He's a demigod.

He once fell to Ogygia at a much faster speed but had little to no problems after that. However, the Archimedes Sphere he was holding had also exploded, giving him another direction to fly over and thus breaking his fall.

In this fic, there was nothing to break his fall—not even the trees themselves… but he is falling less quickly than he did in The House of Hades. In THoH, Khione threw him off, giving him more force and quicker velocity. Here, he's just falling.

Had Leo been mortal he would have died with Subarachnoid Haemorrhage, Brain Parenchymal Injury, the "Sprain" would be "Fracture". There would be damage with the liver (lacerations from fractured ribs) and lungs (puncture from fractured ribs), as well as haemoperitoneum.


	4. Leo Finds Some Familiarity

Darkness. Trees. Alone. Mom. Drakon. Festus. _Festus. FESTUS._

"Festus!" Leo yells, bolting upright. Leo is still not completely conscious since he fails to notice that he had just knocked someone over who tried to make him drink something, shattering whatever-it-is on the ground, making everyone in the room panic for a bit.

Leo couldn't lose Festus, too—not after everyone had abandoned him and left him alone for _months_. Festus is the only one he has left—the only one left who _cares_ about him… and he would _not_ let some stupid monsters take him away.

Panting as if he had just run a fifty-mile marathon, he unseeingly looks around the stony room in a panic as he hurriedly tries to break free of the chains which are preventing him from getting to his bronze companion. The key word being _tries_.

Not noticing the people standing up on the bed beside him and surrounding him, he burns the soft restraints he is currently trying to get away from. He _has_ to go to Festus and he doesn't care about the _freaking_ consequences. _No one_ takes his family away from him.

Now free from his restraints, he jumps up—trying (and failing) to stop himself from falling from what he now deemed is actually a bed. Finally, after what seems like an embarrassingly long time but is actually less than a second, he lands in an ungodly heap at the foot of a certain green-eyed son of Poseidon…

The green-eyed son of Poseidon whose companion, the bushy-brown-haired daughter of Pluto, is yelling something at their red-headed companion who suddenly shoves a vial of something down his throat, making him spit it out immediately.

"Holy Hades, what is _that_?" Leo asks, coughing and trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "It tastes like Cabin Five's old gym socks! Well… I don't actually _know_ how it tastes like, you know… but in _theory_ — _just_ a theory—it would _probably_ taste something like this because that is freaking _nasty_ as schist."

Finally staring up from his position and actually taking a good look at the people surrounding him, Leo blinks profusely before coming to a realization.

Because he is right in front of a raven-haired green-eyed boy who definitely looks like Percy… but wait a second; he was _pretty sure_ that Percy is with Annabeth right now studying at school in New York, which meant that this dude he was talking to was definitely NOT Percy… unless something happened? Or he's in the future?

Oh gods, how long has he been out?

"Percy?" he starts cautiously.

The moment he uttered the name, he already confirmed that the boy in front of him is definitely _not_ Percy because all three of them glance at each other the same way he and the other six demigods did when they were faced with trouble that they are bound to solve in some way or another.

"You want… my brother?" the redhead asks.

"Er, no, I—" he stumbles before looking at the green-eyed Percy-look-alike. "You're not Percy," Leo finally manages to say, even though he's just stating the sad sad obvious.

To his surprise, the green-eyed boy snorts in reply. "No, I am _definitely_ not Percy. No way, no."

Beside him, the redhead chuckles as well before they are berated by the Hazel-haired girl. Her brown eyes even look gold from time to time when the light shines on her eyes.

"Am I dead?" he jokes instead.

"Nope, very much alive," the redhead says.

Leo's brows scrunch up in confusion before his whole face turns into one of horror because oh gods, what if this is a trick or something?

Sitting up a bit, he raises his hands a bit to defend himself in case something bad happens. He sighs in relief when he feels his toolbelt still around his waist and grabs a ball-peen hammer from it to hold on to.

"Okay, tell me: who are you?" he demands.

"Please calm down—" the Hazel-haired-girl begins at the same time the redhead wonders out loud, "Where did he get a—" but Leo interrupts them both.

"No! No. I want to know who _you_ are first 'cause I might be a bit _banged up_ or whatever but I have all my memories and I _know_ I don't know you… and look at you! Right there, talking to me and stuff," he demands, straightening better.

"Mate, put the hammer down—" Percy-look-alike starts but Leo ignores him.

"You know what? Better question: where in the Doors of Death am I? Because I don't know where I am, and _trust me_ , I've been to a _lot_ of places," he finishes.

"Come on, mate, we just found you—"

Leo's eyes immediately fall to the Hazel-haired-girl's hand, which is now holding a stick—a _wand_. "You're wizards," he finally says.

"Yeah, mate," Percy-look-alike says, giving an easy laugh that reminds Leo of Percy himself. Maybe like Frank, this dude is a son of a deity and a descendant of another—son of Poseidon and descendant of Hecate or something?

Having thought that, Leo instantly relaxes. His instincts tell him that these people aren't monsters anyway, and from the nice look on their faces, he'll be fine.

"You must have really hit your head hard from that fall," the redhead adds.

"Oh no, what about the Blood Potion?" the girl gasps.

Percy-look-alike stares at Leo intently. "Mate, we want you to keep calm, okay? You kinda threw away the medicine we're supposed to give you earlier."

"What medicine?!" Leo asks, confused and lost at what's happening.

"What if he actually _is_ a Muggle?" the red-headed boy whispers to the girl.

"I'm not a Muggle!" Leo says, remembering all he learned about their society, just as the Hazel-haired girl berates the red-headed boy by saying, "He just used accidental magic. Weren't you paying attention?"

Percy-look-alike starts, "How come we've never seen you before?"

"I'm American," Leo replies.

"There's a Wizarding School in America?" Percy-look-alike exclaims while the other two both nod at him in confirmation.

"Guess there's no need to kill you with this, then," Leo jokes, gesturing to the hammer in his hands before putting it back in his toolbelt.

Hazel-haired-girl looks down at her own weapon before starting, "Look, your wand—well, we didn't see anything when we found you—"

"Oh, it's—er—it's okay… I'm more of a wandless-magic-user kind of guy…" The trio all widen their eyes at what he said so he immediately adds, "but don't tell anyone. It seems like a really big deal here in Europe and—"

Suddenly, a pair of redheaded twins enters the infirmary sporting some scrapes, bruises, and _too many wrinkles_ —distracting Leo from his suspicions. Leo, being the only one who could see them from his angle, brings them to attention.

"Whoa-hoa-hoa, what happened to you, guys?" he asks, chuckling. "Not that the beaten-up aesthetic doesn't look good on you but aren't you a bit old to even be having them? Unless you two are like—I don't know—Magneto and Professor X or whatever. Shouldn't there be rules amongst the elders against fighting or something? I mean, no offense, but you do seem pretty beat up…"

"Not as bad as you look, mate," one of the twins says in reply.

"Yeah, I don't know about you but I happen to know that we look absolutely smashing," the other twin continued.

Something triggers inside Leo at the reminder of his predicament.

"Oh gods, oh gods, Festus," he starts, grabbing materials from his toolbelt and begins making materials out of it. "I left him all alone. Oh man, where did you find me? I got to get to him! I bet someone's behind this! I mean serpents and drakons side-by-side. I gotta have the worst luck ever, then again, I did have Tia Callida as a babysitter and I was visited by Dirt-Face herself when I was 8, so I'm not surprised but still! I mean, what does a mechanic have to do to just get some peace and quiet with his _ese_! I mean, really!" [1]

Dumbfounded, the trio and the pair of twins stare helplessly at one another as they turn to the strange individual who continues ranting and building things from scratch which he doesn't seem to know that he's doing.

"…and so we were there, just minding our own business when all of a sudden BOOM! HELLO!—these dark creatures just came down at us like some crazy eagles finding fishes flying in the middle of the sea! I could have probably taken them, you know—I mean, face it: I'm awesome… but I just _had_ to get weird in the head like some wimp now, hadn't I? I fell and Festus got in a fight and now we're separated, and oh gods, have you seen him by any chance? He's like family to me and I really need to find him and _what am I even still doing here_?!"

With that final question, Leo finally stops and takes a deep breath. He realizes that he is still sitting down on the floor where he landed on a few moments earlier. Slowly and wincing, he tries to stand up, determination filling him up in the hopes of finding Festus as soon as possible, wincing a bit as he does so.

 _Madre de los dioses_ , he practically yells every Spanish curse in his head. For his sake, he hopes he didn't give too much away. He really needs to find Festus immediately. Although, a few moments ago, he would probably be lighting this whole room on fire in a panicked state. He had probably killed everyone in this room already just to quickly leave the room and find his friend.

"Festus is missing. I should be panicking, right?" he mumbles to himself. _Why am I not panicking as much as I should have had?_

He looks up in surprise when the red-headed boy speaks up. "The only thing we managed to give you was some calming draught, mate. But, it didn't seem to work for some reason," he adds, scratching his head.

Leo hums. "I don't know… I think that calming draught or whatever worked pretty well, actually. I don't think I've ever been this calm in my life… considering, er—yeah…" he stops himself before he spills any more of his past.

"Bloody hell, mate! If that's _your_ version of calm, I don't want to see how you really are when you're not!" the redhead exclaims with wide eyes. At this outburst the Percy-look-alike and the Hazel-haired girl both nod in agreement.

"Really? I think you'd find that I'm much more awesome than I am right now," Leo adds, wincing when he tried to straighten up more.

 _I didn't take some ambrosia yet, did I? I didn't have an Archimedes Sphere to break my fall this time either. Man, falling that high is seriously not good for my spine,_ he thinks, grimacing at the discomfort on his back.

"We don't even know your first name," Hazel-haired-girl states, distracting Leo by taking control of the dominance in the room. Leo instantly knew she would work best with Annabeth. She's like a weird combination of Hazel and Annabeth.

"I'm Leo."

"Valdez? Right?" the redhead asks. He turns beet-red when everyone turns to look at him—almost as bright red as his hair. "We only heard your last name earlier… er, yeah… I'm Ron," he squeaks.

"What our ickle little brother meant to say—"

"—is that his true name is ickle little Ronniekins."

"No, it's not!" Ron, Ronniekins or whatever-his-name-is, says but the twins both ignore him.

"Fred."

"George."

"Weasley. At your service," the twins ended simultaneously with a bow.

"How long since you two decided to settle with that phrase?" Leo asks the two amusedly. "I'm a bit impressed, I can tell you that."

"They've been doing it since _forever_ ," redhead-with-many-names says.

"Hold on, you said _brother_ ," Leo tells the twins before turning to the youngest redhead. "You're brothers with old men?"

 _Definitely half-brothers with a god or something? Or Hecate herself? I mean, they do all have freckles, and they are all redheads…_

"A prank gone wrong, probably," Percy-look-alike chimes in.

Leo seriously needs to know the other two's names.

"That reminds me, I never knew your names either," Leo adds, nodding at the other two occupants of the room. "It's getting a bit hard to keep calling you two Percy-look-alike and Hazel-haired-girl."

While Hazel-haired-girl mutters on about how the color of her hair could not possibly be _that_ light enough to be hazel-brown, all three brothers suddenly burst into deep laughter with Percy-look-alike glaring at them but trying hard not to laugh.

When Leo turns to look at them questioningly, they wave him off, saying something about an inside joke, family, and something about a perfect or prefect or whatever-goes-along-those-lines. Anyway, accepting it, albeit a bit reluctantly, Leo turns back to the ones he addressed, asking them for their names again.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter." Percy-look-alike— _Harry_ finally says with an easy smile, and looking like he seems ecstatic that Leo doesn't know who he is.

"I'm Hermione Granger." Hazel-haired-girl— _Hermione_ states.

Before Leo asks another question, _Ronniekins_ butts in, "My name's _Ron_ , by the way—just _Ron_."

"Ronald, stop being so rude," Hermione reprimands him.

He was about to reply before he turns to Leo. "Ronald Weasley's my full name but it's _Ron_ , okay?" Turning, Ron asks his brothers. "What are you two doing here?"

"Well, in case you weren't aware, dear beloved brother of ours—" Fred starts.

"—we do actually go to school here, you know," George finishes.

"I mean we knew you were unobservant—"

"—but we think you should see someone to help you—"

"—with your little _condition_ ," both twins finish jokingly.

"Seriously!" Ron sighs in exasperation.

"We have no idea what you are seeing, ickle Ronnie—" Fred starts.

"—but we are pretty sure that _Sirius_ and _Lee_ aren't here," George continues.

"Unless they've suddenly mastered the art of invisibility, that is," Fred adds.

"Hey! That gives me an idea!" they both exclaim before saying, "Jinx! Jinx! _Jinx_!" over and over as they continue to squabble over who said it first.

"Ugh, you know what I mean!" Ron yells through their squabbling, thoroughly fed-up with how his brothers keep messing with him.

"We all know _I_ mastered that since First Year," Harry adds, making the twins stop before all three of them start talking about who did crazier things in their First Year with Ron backing Harry up.

"Are they always like this?" Leo asks Hermione and she nods.

 _Reminds me of Percy and Tyson having fun with the Stoll brothers_ , Leo thinks, _except Tyson is a cyclops and his hair's not red, and Percy isn't a wizard, and Travis and Connor aren't twins… and they both don't look like the elderly._

"Why do they look like that?" he asks Hermione.

" _I suspect_ ," she starts loudly to bring everyone's attention to her, "they're here because of the whole age limit thing." Hermione states.

"Aww, what gave it away?" George starts. "Was it the wrinkles?"

"Or the bruises?"

"But if you must actually know, Granger, we're here not only to get rid of these charm-enhancing wrinkles but also because Filch can't exactly blame us when we're not even in the room where he found the potions."

"And he can't blame us for a prank that was executed in a room we're not in either. That's just favouritism, now," Fred finishes.

"I don't get it. How _could_ you even do a prank from all the way here?" Harry asks them, genuinely curious.

"Those are trade secrets, I'm afraid."

"We can't just tell anybody after all."

Watching the twins, Leo begins to think about the parallels between him and the Stoll brothers, and how much he himself actually had some fun with the two sons of Hermes, not noticing that he is currently still staring at the twins as he goes over his mind with both light and dark memories.

The twins, however, did notice his stare.

"I know that we're good-looking, Forge," Fred starts, grinning at his twin.

"Very good-looking, Gred," George replies. " _So_ much we always get _stared at_!" He smirks at his brother, placing a delicate hand on his chest while Fred does the same to his forehead, imitating a fake faint, as they lean their shoulders together.

Leo blinks back from his own memories, realizing what's going on before giving his usual mischievous smile.

"Oh no, it's fine," Leo tells them with a shrug. "If I wanted to see someone _really_ good-looking, I can always just look at a mirror. I just thought that you, guys, had—I don't know— _something on your face_ ," he finishes, touching his wrinkle-less face.

The twins look at each other while the trio exchange looks that clearly means, _Uh oh_ , just as the twins offer their hands to the son of Hephaestus—who takes both hands by crossing his arms and shaking them.

"Oh, we like you—" George tells him.

"—and if you have any need for our services—" Fred continues.

"—don't hesitate to find us," they end.

"Thanks, I guess," Leo says, cocking his head. "You, guys, seem cool… for a pair of old men, I suppose."

Before the twins could reply, Hermione gasps as she checks the time.

"Well, this all seems well and good but unfortunately, the three of us do have a Potions class to get to—"

Both Ron and Harry mumble about slimy snakes for some reason. Leo, on the other hand, actually marvel at the fact that wizards use _potions_ and have _classes_ for it as well. It's like learning about Camp Half-Blood all over again except it focuses more on freaking _magic_.

"Why couldn't he cancel his three o'clock classes like Flitwick?" Ron sighs.

" _Because_ , Ronald," Hermione starts, " _Professor_ Flitwick's one of the professors helping with the living arrangements for the other schools—not Professor Snape."

"Slimy git," Ron grumbles under his breath.

"I'm just glad we're free from Potions classes," Fred comments.

"But that doesn't stop you from making some, does it?" Harry adds. "I heard someone nicked some ingredients from him again."

Before Fred or George reply, Hermione interrupts them. "Look, we can all talk about this later but Professor Snape will be out to get us if we don't leave now," she reminds them, making the younger two boys grumble.

"Sorry, mate. We'll come back to check on you later, though. Bye!" Ron says just as Harry tells him, "See you soon!" while they are both being dragged out the doors by Hermione, waving back towards Leo.

"Well, I do _not_ want to be with them right now," Leo tells no one in particular, collapsing back on the bed with a small wince at the pain on his leg as well.

 _I forgot to take ambrosia! Ugh, and I just told myself to eat some immediately! Freaking ADHD making me forget stuff. Ugh._

"Don't think anybody would, to be honest," George says. The twins both shake their heads, both of their eyes fixed on the now-closed doors of the Infirmary.

"Granger's a right force to reckon with— _especially_ when it comes to studying." Fred shudders.

Leo clicks his tongue before asking, "So this place—it's your school?"

The twins snort. "Where have you been in that head of yours, mate?" Fred asks him with a smile.

"I was unconscious before you two came."

"What _did_ happen to you anyway?" George asks.

Leo shrugs. "I don't know. Harry, Ron, and Hermione probably found me, from the few moments we talked… I just remember falling and here I am." As he tries to sit up again, he gasps at the pain in his body.

Gods, how _badly_ did he fall? He hasn't felt this much pain since he… _died_.

"Whoa, mate, take it easy," Fred tells him immediately. "George?"

"On it," the other says, grabbing his wand and muttering, "Alohomora," to unlock the Nurse's Office, quickly grabbing some vials from one of the cabinets.

"Looks like you've done this before," Leo comments.

"Only nearly every day," Fred says as George hands his twin two things—a vial with purple liquid in it, and some sort of jar.

"What are these?" Leo asks suspiciously as George also hands him two vials— one is green and the other is red.

"The green one is the Wiggenweld Potion, cures some damage," George informs him. "The red one's the Blood-Replenishing Potion, in case you have internal injuries and everything… From the mess on the floor, it seems that you failed to drink the first dose."

Leo looks at the other side of the bed to see spilled red potion and broken glass on the floor which George manages to clean with a wave of his wand.

"This one," Fred starts, raising the vial with the purple liquid in his hand, "is the Wound-cleaning Potion and I think the name speaks for itself. This one," he raises the jar and George takes the lid off for him, "Star Grass Salve—soothes injuries."

As much as he is touched by the gesture, he's still not sure what those things can do and it's probably not safe to demigods like him if they are usually used for wizards. If they _are_ descendants, that means Leo still has more godly DNA in him in comparison to everyone. Plus, from what he was given earlier, he does _not_ want to drink something so vile, thank you very much.

Leo clears his throat before handing the vials he was given to George. "Er, thanks, and all, but—I'd rather not."

"What? You want to be bedridden the whole day? That it?"

"No, no, I just have to eat this," Leo starts, looking through his toolbelt to find the airtight bag filled with ambrosia squares he kept just in case.

Taking one, he is immediately met by the _homemade-brownie_ taste ambrosia has. A warm feeling courses through his body as it dissolves in his mouth, making him feel like he can carry the twins on his arms and run a mile.

He sighs, jumping up from the bed. "There, see? Better."

"Whoa, what's that—?" Fred asks, reaching towards the bag before Leo closes it and puts it back in his toolbelt.

"Can't have some. You'll die if you do," Leo replies.

"Why?" George asks amusedly.

"Because," Leo replies lazily, smirking before he is hit by a minor wave of dizziness, making the twins hold him up almost immediately.

 _Those dark creatures must have really weaken me… It's the only explanation why I took that fall harder than I should have had… The only time I was almost as weak as this was when the eidolon finally left my body. Even then, it wasn't as bad as this was… What in Dirt-Face's Ugly Smile were those things anyway?_

Leo shudders before removing their grip to make his point clear that he is _fine_ though the twins don't seem to believe him.

He can't risk taking another square, however, unless he wants his bones to turn to sand and his body disintegrate.

"So, do you, guys, mind pointing me to the exit? I really need to find Festus," Leo asks them. "Help a foreigner out?"

The twins share a brief look.

"You're not seriously thinking of leaving the Hospital Wing, are you?" George asks in concern. "You were pale a few seconds ago!"

"Yeah, well, now I'm fine," Leo insists.

"He's even worse than Harry," Fred comments and George hums in agreement. "Suppose we can't really stop you, now, can we?"

"Nope. So are you gonna tell me how to leave this school of yours or what?" Leo asks them after finally steadying himself and rearranging his torn-up clothes to look decent.

"Oh, we could do you something better, mate. We'll help you!" Fred starts.

"What? No, I—" Leo starts but George interrupts him.

"After all, we can't leave someone who is injured all by their lonesome. It is _absolutely_ unacceptable."

"We'll leave after Georgie and I get ourselves sorted—become young again."

"Tell us, Leonardo—"

"My name's not—"

George ignores him, continuing, "—where exactly is this friend of yours?"

Leo sighs. "Er—I don't know, exactly… The last thing I remember seeing were trees, though. I don't suppose you have a forest around here?"

"Hey Feorge, you don't think?"

"That is _exactly_ what I think, Gred."

"The Forbidden Forest," they say, both thinking it would be an interesting time but also agreeing that it might not be good for Leo and his current predicament.

"Oh great, another monster-infested forest, I'm guessing?" Leo mumbles.

"Another?!"

"Yeah, I'm kinda used to nightly-walks in a dangerous forest," Leo replies with a shrug. "Reminds me of home, you know?"

The twins smile at him before both muttering. "Wicked."

* * *

 **FOOTNOTES**

* * *

[1] Leo canonically uses the term "ese" and constantly uses it when talking to Lester Papadopoulos. It's a Mexican slang word for "bro." It is said to be used amongst gangs, which would also make sense since Leo was part of gangs before going to Wilderness School.


End file.
